MILAN — Stone Island has signed a two-year world partnership with Frieze, which indicators a brand new chapter for the Italian model and is anticipated to additional heighten its visibility.
The partnership will start with Frieze London 2023, happening Oct. 11-15 in The Regent’s Park. It’ll additionally mark the 20th anniversary of one of many world’s most influential artwork gala’s.
“Historically, in presenting itself, Stone Island selected backdrops that had been by no means pure style,” chief government officer Robert Triefus instructed WWD. He cited, for instance, the drop of Stone Island’s Sequence 07 of its Prototype Analysis assortment of clothes throughout Milan’s worldwide design and furnishings commerce present Salone del Cellular final April.
“Stone Island likes to do issues in another way from the mainstream. We share so many values with Frieze and what it stands for; it is vitally related to our spirit, it’s a constructive affiliation. Stone Island is constructed on a neighborhood and artistic power impressed by analysis and innovation, traits that outline the Focus part of Frieze’s artwork gala’s, in addition to the Frieze 91 world membership program,” mentioned Triefus.
Actually, the partnership extends to Frieze 91, which offers entry with a worldwide calendar of curated experiences, in addition to members-only content material and advantages, and Stone Island has additionally signed on to grow to be the official companion of Focus, providing every of the taking part galleries a grant, equal of as much as 30 p.c of every exhibitor’s stand charge.
The assist, mixed with Frieze’s current subsidies for the part, will support the chosen rising galleries in Focus, every based 12 years in the past or much less, to take part within the honest. Stone Island can even amplify visibility with a devoted content material collection about Focus and its taking part galleries, made in collaboration with Frieze Studios, its in-house artistic crew.
The Focus part is a vital element of Frieze, mentioned Triefus, and Stone Island will contribute to assist rising galleries from around the globe to take part, “breaking into the artwork scene, which is dominated by large artwork galleries.” Rising galleries and artists will dedicate their Focus sales space to the work of a single artist.
The Focus part takes place in any respect of Frieze’s modern artwork gala’s in London, Los Angeles, New York and Seoul. Triefus highlighted the significance of the worldwide stance of Frieze and these 4 cities “for cultural and concrete relevance,” and for contributing to Stone Island’s reference to its personal communities and reaching out to different, new communities.
Stone Island has a loyal buyer fan base developed over its 41-year historical past. Consolidating this neighborhood, made up of “musicians, sportspeople, creatives and artists,” whereas additionally increasing it and creating new experiences is vital, in line with the manager. “Stone Island is kind of distinctive because it does have the flexibility to attach with totally different communities,” he mentioned. “That is an thrilling second, and we need to be partaking very organically, broaden our attain in a extra seen manner, and be extra proactive within the expression of the model, its legacy and what it stands for.”
Triefus mentioned that chairman Carlo Rivetti has succeeded in sustaining Stone Island as “genuine,” and that it was “simpler to convey visibility to a model that has a transparent street map and factors of reference.”
Rivetti joined Stone Island in 1983 — a yr after Massimo Osti based the corporate in Ravarino, close to Modena — by buying 50 p.c of the agency. A decade later, Rivetti and his sister Cristina purchased the remaining 50 p.c.
Moncler acquired 70 p.c of Sportswear Firm SpA, proprietor of the Stone Island model, in 2020, earlier than taking full management of the agency the next yr.
Triefus, beforehand CEO of Gucci Vault and Metaverse Ventures and senior government vp, company and model technique on the Italian luxurious model, joined Stone Island on June 1. He’s constructing a crew that now consists of chief advertising and marketing officer Oliver Cooke, who has developed his profession at Giorgio Armani, Burberry and most not too long ago JW Anderson.
Simon Fox, CEO of Frieze, mentioned Stone Island’s position “underscores our shared dedication to supporting younger galleries and their artists, and to showcasing them at our gala’s alongside the world’s main galleries.”
This yr’s Focus at Frieze London has 34 taking part galleries from 18 nations, together with displays by Larry Achiampong (Copperfield, London), Débora Delmar (Llano, Mexico Metropolis) and Jordan Strafer (Heidi, Berlin and Sizzling Wheels, Athens).
To mark the 20th anniversary of Frieze London, Stone Island and Frieze will cohost a celebration on the Koko membership in Camden on Oct. 12 to rejoice twenty years of London’s artistic panorama, with DJ units from artists Haroon Mirza, Andrew Pierre Hart, Mark Leckey and Rabz Lansiquot.
As reported, Stone Island staged an archival exhibition operating Sept. 5-9 throughout the second version of the Frieze Seoul worldwide artwork honest and Seoul Style Week.
Held on the Layer 41 Studio location, the “Chosen Works_Seoul ‘982-‘023: The Stone Island Archive” present was billed as the most important set up the model has ever staged in Asia, with a deal with the high-tech analysis on fibers and textiles and innovation in product design it’s identified for.
That includes greater than 70 key items, tracing again to the primary assortment developed for spring 1982, the exhibition in Seoul targeted on groupings of labor such because the Pure Metallic Shell jackets, the Prototype Research_Series, in addition to the model’s persevering with experimentation with each Ice Jackets and reflective supplies and the Tela Stella cape hailing from the primary Stone Island assortment for spring 1982 and impressed by navy truck tarpaulins, amongst others.
In July, Moncler Group chairman and CEO Remo Ruffini, commenting on the group’s first-half revenues, which for the primary time in that interval surpassed the 1 billion euro mark, mentioned “at Stone Island, we’ve simply began the second chapter of the evolution of this distinctive model below the management of the newly appointed CEO.”
Ruffini described Stone Island as “a tremendous model very near our mentality and imaginative and prescient,” and that after an preliminary management of its distribution, the second part will deal with the direct-to-consumer channel, “altering the tradition within the firm, a most troublesome” step, and likewise on elevating the model in “a extra premium world” with new shops. “We have now very clear concepts and we’re very optimistic that we will develop this journey in two or three years.”
Revenues of Stone Island amounted to 201.6 million euros within the half, up 4 p.c in contrast with the identical interval of 2022. As of June 30, Stone Island had 74 straight operated shops, a rise of three models in comparison with the tip of March, and 19 monobrand wholesale shops.
